Yew Sin-Ee Yi check into Japan Open quarter-finals
KUALA LUMPUR: Shuttlers Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi hope to end their Superseries quarter-final jinx at the Japan Open.
The Malaysians checked into the men’s doubles last eight after scoring a sensational 21-18, 21-12 upset win over world No. 8 Lee Jhe-hueiLee-yang of Taiwan in the second round in Tokyo yesterday.
Yew Sin-Ee Yi will face Japan’s Takuto Inoue-Yuki Kaneko in their third quarter-final appearance in the Superseries, after the Hong Kong Open last year and Australian Open in June.
The Japan Open will be Yew Sin and Ee Yi’s last tournament together.
The world No. 18 pair have been split up and they will partner Tan Wee Kiong and Goh V Shem at the French Open in Paris from Oct 24-29.
Yew Sin does not want to think too far ahead about his partnership with Wee Kiong.
“I want to focus on here first. Ee Yi and I played well to upset the Taiwanese,” said Yew Sin.
“We have always tried to improve our game in every tournament and this is no different. Everything fell into place for us today.
“Our quarter-final opponents are unseeded but we’ve lost to them before. It won’t be easy.”
Three-time Olympic silver medallists Lee Chong Wei flirted with danger again before checking into the men’s singles quarter-finals with a hard-fought 22-20, 21-17 win over Tommy Sugiarto of Indonesia.
Fifth seed Chong Wei, who also struggled to get past Hong Kong’s Wong Wing Ki on Wednesday, will face Taiwanese youngster Chou Tien-chen today.
“Chong Wei is struggling with his confidence. It’s not easy to make a comeback after the first-round loss at the world meet (in Glasgow last month). Let’s hope he will slowly get back his touches,” said national coach Tey Seu Bock from Tokyo.
Meanwhile, it’s all over for Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie (mixed doubles) and Soniia Cheah (women’s singles).
Soon Huat-Shevon battled for 71 minutes before losing 16-21, 25-23, 20-22 to Japanese Takuro HokiSayaka Hirata.
Soniia went down tamely 14-21, 14-21 to Zhang Biewen of the United States.